A/N: Super fast. Just a shout out to charmednar who gave me the idea for this chapter. I hope you like it!
She wakes at the break of dawn. She knows that today will be the day that she will die. She's prepared for this day for a long time now. To save the world. To prevent Goriath from coming to power and taking over the world and completely destroying it. The only trouble is is that Goriath knows that she is the only one who can stop him and is just as prepared as she is.
Goriath is a demon. The demon of all demons. He has every power known to the magical community and is immune to all powers that could be used against him. His only desire? To destroy the world. He doesn't want to control it like most. He wants it obliterated completely. It will take so much more than a simple spell to stop him from acting on his plans today.
She gets out of bed and makes her way to her sink to wash her face and get ready for her ultimate destiny.
She looks in the mirror and sees the exact same face that she's seen her entire life before her very eyes. The only difference is her hair is pure silver. How is this possible? She's been dead for who knows how long and she looks exactly the same as I do. We had different parents, I'm sure. As Pres' conscious ponders why her and her past life look exactly the same, she begins to hear the person she's come to visit for answers speak.
"I know who you are. I knew that you will come for answers some day. I am Carlisse. I know that this will be the day that I die and I know that I will not succeed in my soul's destiny this day. That's one of the reasons we witches get reincarnated so easily. Sometimes quickly, and sometimes it takes centuries of rest before we can continue where we left off. But know this. Goriath is no mere demon. I would say he is death itself, if only I didn't know that angels of death are around all living beings, transporting us to the next life. I am certain I have one waiting beside me this day. Also know that I can't give you the answers you seek like this. I can't feed them all to you. You must see what I see in order to know what I know. But after that time, you will be on your own. For you can't do the sames things I have done. In order to win, you must fight differently. Unfortunately for me, I don't have that choice, but you do. I know this."
What? How does she know that I am here to see my past life for the answers to fight a major demon threat in the future that some astrally projected being warned me and my sisters of?
She simply smiles into the mirror. "My dear, we are cut from the same cloth, as people from your time say. We are the same soul, but at the same time different. You are simply me with a little more life experience. We are also very powerful witches with magic bursting from our beings. We both have powers that the enemy doesn't know about. And I also know that you have powers that you do not yet know about, but will when the time is right. It is with that power that you will finally be able to fulfill our soul's destiny and finally be able to find rest in the end. I know that I will fail, but you will succeed. As for the warning from the mysterious being, that was a spell that I am about to enact specifically for you. I knew that in order for you to be ready when Goriath comes back and to finally defeat him, you would need some kind of warning to be prepared. I also knew that since you were me, that you would come back to me for answers. And here we are, are we not?"
Yeah, I guess so, I think with a slight mental shrug.
"Very good. Now be careful while you are here. For Goriath must not know about you yet. And if you are not as silent as possible while you are with me in my mind, he will know and we will both perish. He will win and the world will follow in our steps. I know that neither of us want this."
How will he know? If I am in your mind, that is. I technically don't exist yet. Sorta. This is really weird. I feel like I should have a headache right now since this is so confusing.
She laughs and says, "Yes. What you say is true. But he is no mere demon, as I said. He has powers beyond your reckoning and experience. We may be in Atlantis, a city of magic and more power than any other civilization, but he will still know that there is more magic here than should be."
Woah! Wait! Atlantis!?
"Yes. I am sorry. I thought you knew. We are in Atlantis. The city of magic."
You mean to tell me that my past life lived in Atlantis? I thought that this city was nothing but a story.
"Yes. I do live here in Atlantis. I am truly saddened to learn that this beautiful place will grow to be naught but a myth in your time, whenever that is. And don't try to tell me when it is. The less I know about the future, the less likely it will be that Goriath will be able to sense it and plan a way to best you in that time. Now, please give me but a moment to enact the spell that I sent to you in the future to warn you if this impending doom. For if I do not cast this spell, you will not be warned and we would not be here right now discussing this impending doom."
Um, yeah. Sure. Go ahead. I think and wait patiently in the corner of her mind that I am inhabiting as she slowly brings herself to her knees on the floor in a pentagram that has been drawn on the floor in some chalky and ricy looking substance. I am not truly paying attention to the ritual she is performing for I do not want to interrupt her in any way or disturb the casting. I would probably be fine to just listen, but I'd rather not risk it. I am still surprised that she knew that I was here in her body to observe what we are up against. My sisters told me that this spell was a passive spell and that she wouldn't know about my observations.
Clearly all of us were wrong about that one. I get the feeling that I am dealing with so much more than anybody could clearly imagine. Even myself. Apparently my past life has surpassed all imaginations as well.
"There. The spell is completed and you will be warned in your time. Now listen carefully, child. This is a dangerous time for both of us. Goriath is a demon bent on destroying the world. He doesn't want to control it. There is also no way to stop him. Not as we are. Or at least, as I am. I see things within you as you are within me and you have something special. Something he doesn't have. But you must be very careful. For if he senses this, he will take this from you. Even though you are not of this time. I do not have the time to explain this to you fully, but know this. If he finds out you are here, not only will he kill me, he will take from you what you have, kill us both, and he will be completely unstoppable. Do not change the past. I've accepted my fate. You will accept yours in time."
What do you mean? Why are you being so cryptic? I don't understand what you are saying to me. I came to you for help, completely expecting this to be a passive spell, and here you are talking to me as if we were old friends! I came here to find out what we are facing in the future and I am just getting more and more confused!
"Ah. The impatience of youth. Trust me, child. You have time. For I see in you greatness. You have more powers than me and I am most certainly not without my tricks. We are different and you are better. Just trust me in this. And trust me that you will get your answers. I just wanted to make a few things clear to you before we go to meet my doom. I must make clear to you the severity of this situation. I am fighting Goriath today and I will lose. He is coming back in your time and you have to be prepared. If he wins, there will be no coming back. For anyone. Not only will he destroy the world. All living things. Everything that yet lives. He will destroy the entire balance. He will destroy existence itself. There will be absolutely nothing left. Which is why you can't fail me today. You will face terror you can't imagine today. You will try to leave this bond we are currently sharing. But you mustn't. You must stay within my mind until I die. You will feel all of my pain. Just hold fast. For if you leave before I die, he will see you and everything will be lost. Do you understand?"
Not really. You're being so cryptic and you keep speaking in circles. But you want me to stay bonded to you until the end. Look, why can't you just not die with my help? Why can't we just destroy him now and be done with this entire thing?
"Because today victory will not favor us. It won't favor Goriath, either, and that's all I can care about at this time. You don't understand yet. But you will. You can't change the past. No matter how much you want to. The past is there to teach us lessons and to create the foundations of our very beings. If you tried to save me today, you will destroy everything. You will unwittingly help him. I know this with every fiber of my being. But if you exercise patience, victory will favor you in the future. You do not yet know yourself. You will. Look, child. Everything you have been through has been because of him. He knows that you are the only one who will be able to challenge him, but he still believes you can't defeat him. He thinks that if he can corrupt your soul with pain, you will join him or destroy yourself. I've seen everything you have dealt with, child. The things that have happened to you. They are unforgivable. But they are also what give you your strength. He has used everything in his power to give you pain, expecting that pain to stop you in some way. But he fails to see your strength. That which I see in you. It is a light that is so bright, it surpasses death itself. You are life, child. Goriath is pain and death. You are opposite to him in every way. This Jerry I've seen in your thoughts was his creation. His child, if you will. Human in every way except he had no free will. He was sent into your world to cause you untold pain and when that pain was wrought as thoroughly as he could, he was freed to cause more pain to others while Goriath gained his own strength of will. To finish what his child started. Are you beginning to understand now?"
Not completely, no. But I do understand some of it. I won't lie and say that I know exactly what you're saying and I'm also not going to sit here and waste more time questioning how you know everything about me and about Jerry and exactly who he was and what he did to me when you died in Atlantian time, and I don't even know how long ago that was from the time that I live now. I am new to this whole witchy world. I'm not new to my powers, but I'm learning that I need to accept things and let them unfold as they will and the answers will come. I feel like that's why I met my sisters. To teach me that last part. I know my powers well, but not all of them. Leo's helped a lot with that and I'm getting a feeling that you are about to do the same. I don't know how, but I just feel it….in my soul. Not to make a pun or anything.
"You are wise beyond your physical years. That's what you get from me. That is my gift to you. I am proud. Are you ready to begin to find the answers that you have come so far to find? Are you ready to do all that I have asked of you?"
As I'll ever be. I will be as passive as can be and I will stay with you. I will stay until the end.
"Very good. Let us begin the path of your destiny."
With that, she grabs a blue cloak that sparkles and floats in the air as if it was made completely of glitter and life itself and puts it around her shoulders and walks out the door of her small home. Never to see it or anyone else again.
Seated in the farthest reaches of her Carlisse's mind, I watched as the beautiful scene before me unfold. Buildings even higher than the skyscrapers of San Francisco seeming to touch the very base of heaven. Perhaps they were heaven's floors. They sparkled just as the cloak did and were varying colors. Some buildings were green, some red, some blue, even some yellow. An entire rainbow of colors sprayed across the entire city and sparkling just like a spring morning dew on the grass. If I had my own body, I would have stopped and stared until my eyes dried themselves up into dead husks. Alas, I was sharing my past life's body and Carlisse was on a mission to sacrifice herself to save all who lived and all who would live. She would not stop until she succeeded in her mission.
Carlisse walked quickly down the streets as the buildings passed them by one by one. Nobody was on the streets. It was almost as if everyone knew that something was going to happen and hoped that by staying out of the way, they would avoid what was coming and all would be well. If only it were to be. But not yet. Not today.
Finally after about ten minutes of walking fast, Carllisse stops in front of a small building. It looked to be a small shop of some kind. It was one of the very few buildings in the city that didn't reach well into the sky and didn't sparkle like jewels. She opens the door and walks inside. It is completely empty except for books. The walls appear to be made completely of books. Carllisse walks quickly to a large book in the middle of one of the many shelves and opens its musty pages. She opens to the page she needs and begins speaking in a language I don't understand. It must be an ancient Atlantian spell, I figure to herself.
As Carlisse finishes the spell from the book, they are surrounded by a bright yellow light and they dematerialize from the bookstore and rematerialize in a black abyss. There is nothing around them, save for a feeling of pure evil emanating from everywhere and nowhere. Pres tried to look around to see where they were, to make out what was happening when she felt a very gentle nudge in her mind; Remember.
With that, I nestle back to the deepest corners of Carlisse's mind that I can and still be able to consciously see what is going on and dig in deep. If she was right, and I had a horrible feeling that she was, we were in for a rough ride.
"I have come for you, Goriath."
"You do not disappoint me. You didn't even make me wait for you or come after you myself. I am impressed. For someone who is about to die, you make sure to impress," a deep and echoing voice answers. If I ever believed in the devil, this guy was it. His voice chilled me to my core and I didn't even have a body of my own to chill.
"Oh, but I haven't come to impress you, Goriath," Carlisse responds. "I have come to stop you."
There is laughter that shakes the abyss that we are in. How that's possible, I have no idea because there is absolutely nothing around us, not even a floor, but it does.
"Oh you are amusing as well. You know that you cannot stop me. I see it in your mind. You have prepared for your own demise today. Not mine," he answers as he begins to materialize in front of us. He is massive. Almost as tall as the buildings we saw on our way here. He is pure black and like no demon I've ever seen. Not that I've seen a lot, but at least they looked humanoid. His eyes are giant slits of blood red and his teeth are almost as long as his claws, which I would guess to be easily at least three feet long. He has hooves for feet and his legs look like that of a goat. He is not covered in fur, however. He is covered in black scales. He almost looks like a hybrid between a dragon and a goat. I gulp internally and dig myself in even deeper and quiet my thoughts of terror and all other thoughts. I made a promise to Carllisse to not let him know that I am here and I intend to keep it. She definitely wasn't kidding when she said he was like nothing I'd ever seen or dreamed of.
"Oh, yes. Most certainly. I have prepared for my death. The question is, have you prepared yourself for yours?" Carlisse asks the beast before her.
He laughs again, and again, the abyss shakes with his laughter. "Truly, I thank you for the entertainment. I am almost sorry that I have to kill you," he says as he crouches down to look Carlisse face to face. Which just makes him look even more menacing. His face is easily as wide as a house, if not wider. Being this close to his teeth allows me to see that they are dripping with a horrible smelling saliva of some sort. Not that I even want to try to figure out what that is. I am here to quietly observe and find out what I'm dealing with.
"Well I'm not sorry that you will kill yourself," she answers with a knowing smirk on her face. With that she pulls her arms back and just as quickly pushes her hands back out in front of her and summons a strong burst of wind with one hand and lightning in the other. This surprise attack has Goriath flinging back into the black abyss that is his home and is just as quickly back on his feet and attacking back with flames hotter than anything I have conjured. Then again I'm not a freaky beast demon thing, either. But again, I can't say I wasn't warned.
Carlisse was prepared for this onslaught and used the wind she used to push Goriath back to surround us and consume the flames as giant tornadoes of flame. Now I had to admit that that was the coolest and most destructive thing I've ever witnessed. I must note that I could probably do that, but shouldn't unless I'm also in an abyss of some sort again.
These flame tornadoes whip around Goriath and catch on his skin of scales. Amazingly, it begins to blister where they make contact and this serves to enrage him further. He roars and with a whip of his claws, they are gone as if they never were and summons forth a black mist that seems to have a mind of its own. It hisses as it consumes Carlisse and myself and she begins to cough as the poison enters her lungs. Then an ocean appears out of nowhere and absorbs it completely and then is gone.
As Carlisse catches her breath, a dark gray fog surrounds us.
"Oh, do you truly think that masking your body in a fog will keep you safe from me? You seem to forget little one, that I am above you. I see all. And you will not defeat me. You can't vanquish me. Nobody can," we hear him say as the evil that I sensed when we got here thickens even more and the abyss is no longer an abyss, but a den full of snakes. Cobras and all manner of poisonous snakes surround us and begin to bite Carlisse's body, filling it with venom. We scream as we feel the fangs dig into our flesh and deliver our doom.
The rumbling begins again as Goriath materializes through the fog and faces us. Carlisse is now on her hands and knees as the poison spreads throughout and more bites and more venom come through her hands and arms. The snakes do not stop their attacks. We're both dying.
"You are pathetic. Puny. You can't even survive a couple of little snake bites. And you thought you could challenge me. I told you. I'm above you. You can't stop me. Nobody can."
Carlisse weakly responds, "That is where you are wrong, Goriath. You don't see everything. You think you do, but you don't. I may be weaker than you this time, but I'm still going to beat you." With that said, she begins saying another spell in the language I can't understand. We are so weak. I don't know how she is managing to say the spell, but she is.
I feel a power building around us. It is beautiful and light and it gains in strength as she continues to say the spell. We are surrounded by a green light that causes the snakes around us to melt like ice on a hot summer day and it is spreading and reaching out for Goriath. As it touches on of his claws, it disintegrates before our eyes and he howls in pain. He reaches his other hand back and then swings it back at as and throws us against something. I don't know what we would hit in this place of nothingness, but we land hard.
Blood fills our mouth and we can't breathe, but Carlisse somehow managed to say the last of her spell. As she uttered the last word, the green light that had surrounded us leaps forward to Goriath and encases him completely in it. He howls in rage and pain and the entire abyss shakes and splits and he is encased in stone. He almost looks like a statue in some person's nightmares. Waiting to free himself and come back to life. He is defeated for now, but he will free himself someday. The power she had summoned was not enough and I feel her body giving up as she reaches for death.
I feel everything she feels and it is the most excruciating thing ever. Most of her bones are broken and her lungs have already filled with blood and she is suffocating. The last of her breath the she did have was used to finish the spell. The venom from the snake bites is almost inconsequential at this point, but I can still feel the burn of it spreading through what hadn't already been destroyed by the landing.
I am dying with her. I do not know how, but I know that if I don't let go now, we will both die. I feel Carlisse beside me in her mind. She's urging me to leave now before it's too late, but before I do she says, "I hope you have at least some of the answers you needed now. He was unstoppable for me. He is not unstoppable for you. He is death and you are life. And with your sisters beside you, it is you who is the one who is unstoppable and should be feared by him." With this she uses the last of her strength to push me out of our shared body and she dies. As she dies, I feel my spirit being sucked back to my own time, but something is horribly wrong. I still feel all the pain that Carlisse felt as she died.
I feel my soul place itself back into its rightful body, and I wake up. I look down, but I am completely covered in blood and bites everywhere. I see the horror on my sisters' faces as I fall from the couch onto the floor and black out to my own abyss.
A/N: Well, what do you guys think? Good bad guy? I just wanted to stray away from the typical demons for Charmed and just do something a little different and a little more scary. Please let me know what you thought!
Also, I have officially finished writing this story. I know, sad day. But it's been a real ride, let me tell you. So that being said, there are three chapters after this one and a short epilogue. I'll probably just post the last chapter and the epilogue at the same time since the epilogue is so short. I'll be posting a new chapter weekly until the end. I REALLY hope you guys like where this is going to go. I know my beta and myself loved it! :) Anyway, until next week!